Quote

Thomas Paine's version of "you didn't build that":

"Separate an individual from society,and give him an island or a continent to possess,and he cannot acquire personal property. He cannot be rich. So inseparably are the means connected with the end,in all cases,that where the former do not exist the latter cannot be obtained. All accumulation, therefore,of personal property,beyond what a man's own hands produce, is derived to him by living in society; and he owes on every principle of justice,of gratitude,and of civilization,a part of that accumulation back again to society from whence the whole came"
Submitted by Leah

This report covers countless cases of rape and other sexual abuse that devastated the lives of children, junior priests, and young seminarians. In one case, the report says, five sisters in the same family—one an 18-month-old toddler—were all abused by the same priest; in another, a girl said she was raped in the hospital after having her tonsils removed; and in another, a priest impregnated a young girl and arranged for her to have an abortion. Priests sometimes shamed their victims after their abuse and compelled them to repent of sins, the report says.

These allegations will largely not lead to criminal convictions, as the state’s statutes of limitations have passed for many cases. In Pennsylvania, victims of child abuse lose the ability to file civil suits at age 30 and cannot file criminal charges after age 50. Victims’ groups and advocates, as well as the grand jury and attorney general, are now campaigning for an extension, or at least exemption, to the statute of limitations for child abuse.

Let us join the campaign. I would throw these bastards out of the country.

Summing up my view, in Plain Irish, “Téigh go dtí ifreann”

The McGlynn

Unidentified victims and families and sexual abuse victims sit on the stage as Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro releases the findings of a two-year grand jury investigation into clergy abuse at six of the state’s Roman Catholic dioceses, leading a news conference at the Capitol in Harrisburg on Aug. 14, 2018.

HARRISBURG — Top Roman Catholic leaders in Pennsylvania covered up decades of child sex abuse involving more than 1,000 victims and hundreds of priests, according to a long-awaited grand jury report released Tuesday.

Capping what may be the most comprehensive examination yet of clergy sex abuse across a single state, the nearly 900-page document accuses church officials in six Pennsylvania dioceses of routinely prioritizing their institution over the welfare of children in their care.

The allegations stretch back to the 1940s, detailing child rapes and groping that mirrored the reports that have roiled the church worldwide. But the document includes several uniquely disturbing accounts of its own — including one of a 1970s pedophile and child pornography ring in Pittsburgh among priests who whipped their victims and took photos of one boy as he posed naked as if on the cross.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro releases the findings of a two-year grand jury investigation into clergy abuse at six of the state’s Roman Catholic Dioceses.Video

One priest in Southwestern Pennsylvania is said to have sexually abused a boy in a confessional. Another, from Allentown, allegedly forced a boy to give him oral sex and then cleansed the child’s mouth with holy water. Two priests impregnated teens; one urged an abortion, the other arranged a secret marriage.

In all, more than 300 priests were singled out – though some names remain redacted amid legal wrangling over the fairness of the investigation and the public report. Dozens of church superiors — including some now in prominent posts nationally — were also named as complicit.

“All of [the victims] were brushed aside, in every part of the state, by church leaders who preferred to protect the abusers and their institutions above all,” the report says. “Priests were raping little boys and girls, and the men of God who were responsible not only did nothing: They hid it all.”

The abuse “was rampant and widespread,” Attorney General Josh Shapiro said at a news conference in the state Capitol. “It touched every diocese, and it is horrifying.”

Many of those accused — including bishops implicated in alleged cover-ups — disputed the findings in responses attached to the report.

The report also comes amid a new wave of accusations that have upended Catholic congregations worldwide and resulted in the resignation of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, formerly the archbishop of Washington.

Among those named by the Pennsylvania grand jury was McCarrick’s successor in Washington, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, a longtime Pittsburgh bishop and one of Pope Francis’ prominent U.S. advisers.

Wuerl, who took over the Western Pennsylvania diocese in 1988, was faulted by the grand jury as failing to protect children from predators and withholding key information from parishioners during his two decades there.

Wuerl denied the claims Tuesday. His spokesman, Ed McFadden, called the investigation a “flawed process” steered “unwaveringly toward a predetermined result” — a statement that echoed concerns raised by nearly two dozen other clergy members who have disputed the report’s accuracy in court and fought to have their names, at least temporarily, redacted.

“In factual ways large and small, the Attorney General’s Office was more concerned with getting this report out than getting it right,” McFadden said.

One woman, the report says, tried to commit suicide days after her testimony and later, from her hospital bed, urged grand jurors to finish their investigation.

Shapiro said he stood by the findings, the result of a two-year investigation by his office.

Despite the wide-ranging criminal behavior the attorney general outlined Tuesday, no new prosecutions are expected to emerge.

Two priests were indicted at earlier stages of the investigation. Many of the accused are either dead or long since removed from ministry, their offenses now beyond the state’s statute of limitations for sex crimes. Some had previously been prosecuted, or the accusations against them made public years ago.

Still, in its scope and breadth, the grand jury’s report was remarkable. The investigation drew upon testimony from dozens of witness and “secret archives” of priest abuse complaints obtained from the Dioceses of Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Allentown, Scranton, Erie, and Greensburg – together home to more than 1.7 million Roman Catholics.

Pennsylvania’s other dioceses – Philadelphia and Altoona-Johnstown – were not included because previous grand juries had already scrutinized their handling of clergy sex-abuse claims.

But the state’s largest city and only archdiocese weren’t completely absent. Some of the accused priests at one point in their careers made stops in Philadelphia; one allegation recounted a boy being abused at one priest’s family home in the city.

Several names fleetingly referenced in the report — including the late Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua and his former aide Bishop Edward Cullen — were church leaders in Philadelphia before or after service in other dioceses.

In many respects, the tactics described Tuesday mirrored those of the 2005 report that assailed the Philadelphia Archdiocese during their tenures here.

Priests preyed on vulnerable children, and their superiors either ignored or hid allegations while shuffling abusers from parish to parish. Lawsuits filed by accusers often ended in strict confidentiality agreements, ensuring their silence for years.

Problem priests were cycled through church-owned treatment centers — including the St. John Vianney Center in Downingtown. Tuesday’s report dismissed the therapy at such facilities, saying it largely existed to “launder accused priests” and “provide plausible deniability to the bishops and permitted hundreds of known offenders to return to ministry.”

In Allentown, grand jurors accused Msgr. Anthony Muntone of discounting a plea from a priest reporting he had molested a 12-year-old in 1982 and asking for help. Instead, the panel said, Muntone concluded “the experiences [would] not necessarily be a horrendous trauma to the victim” and allowed the priest to remain in active ministry for two decades.

In a response to the report’s findings, Muntone denied he ever put children at risk and said all actions he took came after consultation with the diocese legal counsel.

In Erie, grand jurors assailed Bishop Donald Trautman for lauding the Rev. Chester Gawronski for his “many acts of kindness” and “deep faith” even after he admitted to fondling at least 12 boys during what he described as “cancer checks.”

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So true! Unless you have been a victim of these sick priests, you can’t imagine how it affects your life!i am 67 years old and these incidents happened when I was 7 years old at St. Josephs’ Parrish in the 1950s’ in Leavenworth, Kansas.I told my parents, they went to the school and talked to those in charge. Said I had to be making it up! A child could not possibly make these things up! He was sent away for awhile and then returned to the same Parrish! He was a very sick individual and I don’t think they can be rehabilitated!